Get the latest news, updates and offers
from This Old House to your inbox

we are redoing sisters cabinets in kitchen we sanded off all old varnish. The previous owner had a hoverround and gouged a big hole in the wood. it is a round sided cabinet and it is right in the round part. it stands out like a sore thumb. we used wood filler that said paintable and stainable. I tried a sample over the filler with pecan stain and it didn't do anything except shine through. any suggestions on how to deal with this wood be helpful. we really want to restain the cabinets rather than paint them.

There is no filler of any type that can replicate the look of an undamaged panel. You have two options, either learn how to do grain staining and stain the entire panel with a new grain pattern, or overlay the panel with a veneer to restore the original grain look and feel to the panel.

A patch will always look like a patch. Short of replacing the wood or painting them there is only one way to do it. Stain all the wood and get several wood putties close to that color. Mix them together to match the color you want and apply. Then cover with a poly to get the right sheen. It will get you close, but it still will be a patch. Sorry

I had this experience with multiple nail holes that had been filled in a built in china cabinet I stripped and stained. I used a felt tip furniture touch-up marker made by Sharpie to color the lighter colored filler. You might need to layer several colors to get a good match. It worked like a charm in my case.